It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. The streams were long gone back into the earth. If we didn’t see some rain soon we would lose everything. It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and witnessed the best miracle I have ever seen in my life.

I was in the kitchen making lunch for the family when I saw my six-year old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. I could only see his back. He wasn’t walking with his usual steps. He was obviously walking with great effort... trying to be as still as possible. Minutes after he disappeared into the woods, he came running out again, toward the house. I went back to make sandwiches, thinking that whatever he had been doing was completed. Moments later, however, he was once again walking in that slow purposeful long step toward the woods. This activity went on for over an hour: walking cautiously to the woods, then running back to the house. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me. I crept out of the house and followed him on his journey.

He was cupping both hands in front of him as he walked; being very careful not to spill(溅出) the water he held in them. I stepped close as he went into the woods. Branches and thorns slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He might have a much greater purpose, I thought. As I came closer, I saw the most amazing sight. Several large deer stood in front of him. Billy walked right up to them, at the sight of which I almost screamed for him to get away. A huge buck (雄鹿) was dangerously close. But the buck neither threatened him nor even moved as Billy knelt down. And I saw a baby deer lying on the ground, obviously suffering from heavy loss of water and heat exhaustion, lifting its head with great effort to lap (舔) up the water cupped in my boy’s hands.

When the water was gone, Billy jumped up to run back to the house. I followed him

This time I joined him, with a small pot of water from the kitchen

Cindy and Tracy were best friends. Cindy lived alone in Los Angeles far away from her home in Paris, France. She had adopted (收养) a pet dog, Ted, from the animal shelter. The two friends visited each other regularly. Tracy was not much of a pet lover, but as she was well aware of pet owners’ “Love me, love my deg” attitude. She was friendly to Ted and played with him on her visits.

Tracy never thought of keeping a pet in her own house until one day. Cindy invited her to dinner, during which Cindy expressed her intention to commit (托付) Ted to her care for a year. She told Tracy as her father’s health was failing, she would have to go back to Paris.

Knowing that Ted meant a lotto Cindy, Tracy gladly promised to help out. After Cindy had left, Tracy tried her very best to take good care of Ted. She kept messaging Cindy asking for puppy-care advice. At first Ted was obviously not comfortable in Tracy’s house but as time went by, he began to accept her and Tracy got used to his existence.

Getting along with Ted every day, Tracy came to know what dear a puppy can be to its owner. Ted was so lovely that he brought happiness to her. She talked about Ted to everybody just like what Cindy had done before. Gradually, they became a part of each other’ life. She was so fond of Ted that she began to hope that Cindy had forgotten all about Ted, though she felt a sense of guilt at such a thought. One year passed quickly and the day of Cindy’s return came but Tracy’s feelings about it were mixed.

She was eager to meet her friend but unwilling to give Ted back.

My father asked me to chat with him for a while. Actually, I was unwilling to listen to his talking endlessly as he always did. My father was a lawyer, but I never wanted to go to law school or follow his path through life.

As was expected, he cleared his throat and started to say, “Er... What... What do you really want to do in the gorgeous(灿烂的) future?”

I was silent for a moment playing with the cell phone. I kept thinking, “Should I tell him my true thoughts? What if he gets angry? What if I let him down?” later I replied, “Well, I want to be a writer.”

I guessed this may be not the answer he would expect. But surprisingly, “Interesting idea!” he answered. I was shocked, speaking in a low voice with hesitation.

“Are you serious, dad?”

“Well, you need confidence and good preparations, and you still have plenty of time. You need to find out what you really enjoy now. Look, it’s late. Let’s take the boat out tomorrow morning, just you and me. Maybe we can catch some crabs (螃蟹) for dinner, and we can talk more.”

Early next morning we packed up the equipment and set off for the coast. We didn’t talk much, but enjoyed the sound of the seabirds and the sight of the coastline.

There were no big waves and blinding sunlight at that time. “Let’s see if we are lucky,” he said, picked up a web basket with a rope tied and threw it into the sea. We waited a while, then my father stood up and said, “Give me a hand with this,” and we pulled up the crab cage onto the deck.

To our joy, the cage was filled with dozens of soft shell crabs. Squatting (蹲) down, we watched them for a moment. At first they fought against each other to climb out hard, trying to escape. Many were pulled back into the cage. Later, some gave up, but there were still some crabs trying to escape again and again.

The spot of red was what first caught Randy Heiss’s attention on December 16, 2018. He was hiking the remote land behind his farm in a small town near the U.S.-Mexico border, and there lying on the grass was a balloon. He walked toward it with his dog, thinking he should pick it up and throw it away.

That’s when he noticed the balloon’s string was attached to a piece of paper. “Dayami,” it read on one side, in a child’s writing. Heiss flipped the paper over. On the back he saw a numbered list, all in Spanish. His Spanish wasn’t very good, but he could see it was a Christmas list!

Heiss was charmed. He suspected that a child had tried to send Santa Claus a Christmas wish list by balloon, something he used to do himself when he was a kid. Nobody had ever returned the letters Heiss had sent, but he wondered whether he could find the girl who had sent this one.

It would be difficult, but Heiss had a few clues. About 20 miles to the southwest, just across the border, was the city of Nogales, Mexico, with a population of about a quarter million. Based on the wind direction, he was almost sure that was where it came from. Heiss brought the note home to his wife, who is fluent in Spanish and helped him translate the list. They determined that Dayami, probably a girl, had asked for a doll, a dollhouse, doll clothes and art supplies.

Heiss then posted his search about finding Dayami on Facebook, attaching photos, hoping some of his friends in Nogales might know the girl’s family. A few days passed with no results; Heiss worried that time was running out before Christmas. On December 19, 2018, he decided to send a private Facebook message to Radio Xeny, an AM radio station based in Nogales. To his surprise, someone from the station called him back right away and promised him to post his search on the station’s Facebook page immediately.

The next morning, Heiss awoke to a message from Radio Xeny.

Dayami’s eyes were wide open with wonder.